


Loophole, The

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-06
Updated: 2008-12-06
Packaged: 2019-05-15 04:30:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14783613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: Josh finds an employment loophole after Bartlet's second inauguration.





	Loophole, The

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

**SMACK** **BAM** 

“Hey, Margaret.” I greet cautiously approaching her desk. She’s got several large piles of files surrounding her and is violently rubber stamping something in each one. 

“Hi, Josh.” 

**SMACK** **BAM** 

“Whachya doing?” 

“Stamping the personnel files.” she replies not looking up. 

“What?” 

“It’s the beginning of the second term, Josh.” Margaret said. “Everyone working here was hired for one term. They all have to be rehired.” 

“Seriously?” 

She glares up at me and stamps another file. 

“So, you’re saying technically speaking, no one in this building really works for us right now?” 

“Well, some people do.” she says and gestures to a pile on her left. “Those are the ones I’ve done already. I was going alphabetically, but then decided it was probably better to go department by department instead.” 

“Where’s Operations?” 

“There.” she gestures to an enormous pile behind me. Wow. All those people right now waiting to get rehired. Good thing they don’t know they don’t work for me right now. 

Wait a minute. 

All those people don’t work for me right now. 

I move over to the file and start to casually thumb through. 

“Josh, what are you doing?” Margaret asks skeptically. 

“Just looking.” I say innocently. 

“Don’t mess anything up. I don’t want anyone to get screwed by payroll because they weren’t stamped on time.” 

“Oh, I won’t. I’m just wondering if .. you know... Donna’s in here.” I toss out with a slight squeak. 

“Well, of course she’s...no, Josh.” Margaret says as I find Donna’s file and slide it out. 

“No what?” 

“No to what you’re thinking.” 

“And what am I thinking?” I challenge. Let’s see if she’ll say it out loud. Let’s see if Margaret will actually acknowledge this. 

“Josh, you can’t...” she starts and huffs a bit. “Josh, you could really mess things up.” 

“I just want to be clear on something.” I say pointing at her with Donna’s personnel file. “As of now, one Donnatella Moss is currently not employed by this administration.” 

“Josh...” 

“True or false.” 

“It’s a technicality.” she insists. 

“True or false?” I repeat. 

“Well, true, but Josh...” 

“And she will not be employed again, technically speaking, until you stamp whatever in this file.” 

“Josh, you can mess with her payroll.” Margaret warns again. 

“Oh, I’m not too concerned about that. I can give her a safety net there.” I reply with a smirk. 

“Josh, you can’t... if Leo found out, he’d...” 

“He’d what?” I counter. “At the moment, she technically does not work for me. Where’s the problem.” 

“Again, Josh, it’s a technicality.” 

“It’s a loophole.” I smile. 

“You pick now to act like a lawyer.” 

“Harvard AND Yale, Margaret.” I smile proudly. 

I start to walk away from her desk 

“JOSH!” she shrieks. 

I turn and look at her. I give her my best puppy dog face, the one that makes Donna melt and do pretty much anything for me. 

“That look only works on Donna.” she says sternly. 

Shit. I forgot. 

“Margaret, please.” I plead. “Something’s going on between us and I don’t know what it is, but I know that I really want to explore it but without the threat of losing my job and I thought that just maybe if you didn’t get to this one until tomorrow that I can finally have that conversation with her and not have her get all freaked out that one or both of us is going to get fired and that she works for me and it’d be inappropriate or anything like that. Please, Margaret.” 

Wow. That was impassioned. 

She must have thought so, too because she nods and shoos me away. 

I go tearing off to my office and people practically dive out of my way. Usually when I’m running, there’s something really important going on. And right now, there really is. 

I fly into the bullpen and past Donna’s cubicle, yelling on my way, “DONNAIHAVETOTALKTOYOURIGHTNOW!” 

“What the hell?” is her eloquent reply. 

I stick my head out the door and pant in her direction, for two reasons, “Just...please...get...in... here.” I wave. She looks very concerned as she stands up quickly and walks over to me. 

“Josh, what happened? Are you okay?” 

I nod and hustle her into my office, closing, any locking, yes, my door behind her. 

“Josh, you’re freaking me out.” she says putting her palm up to my forehead as I take a deep breath to calm my breathing down. 

“I’m okay.” I assure. I move to my desk and drag her along with me. I smack her personnel file down on my desk and open it up. “Look!” I say triumphantly pointing to the start and stop dates of her employment with the Bartlet administration for the first term. There is no start date for the second term yet. 

Because Margaret hasn’t stamped it yet! 

And I, Joshua Lyman, yes Esquire, am a freaking genius! 

“I got fired?” 

“You’ll be hired back tomorrow.” 

“Josh, that’s just a technicality. Margaret’s been bitching about that all day.” Donna knew about this!? 

“It’s a loophole I can drive a truck through, Donna.” 

“I don’t really know what to say.” 

“I’ll alert Ripley’s.” 

“What are you saying?” 

“I don’t know.” I say. “Maybe nothing. But I think we have a very small window here...” 

“To what?” 

“...to explore whatever was going on Inauguration night.” 

She blushes adorably and looks down. I knew she felt it, too! 

“What do you think?” I ask hesitantly. 

She looks up at me and smiles slowly. Okay, that’s a good sign. Then she steps forward and runs her hands up my chest to my shoulders. Again, I’m thinking good sign. 

Her hand moves behind my head as her face draws closer to mine. “I think I’m really happy you went to law school right now.” she says in a really, really husky voice before pulling me the rest of the way. 

My arms encircle her waist and pull her towards me more. She’s soft, and sweet...and kind of aggressive actually. I didn’t have to do too much convincing there! 

She goes right for the gusto with a nice...deep...really freaking nice kiss. When she pulls away, I’m actually kinda dizzy. 

“Donna, clear my schedule for the afternoon.” I say breathing heavily. 

I, Joshua Lyman, am the master! 

“Clear it yourself, Josh, I don’t work for you.” 

And she, Donnatella Moss, can obviously work a loophole well. 

THE END


End file.
